This Week In Games: Shenmue's Back

Bit of an unusual mix this week: the original Shenmue games make an appearance on platforms again, while F1 2018 arrives to cheer up the motorheads. A range of games find new homes this week, with Inquisitor Martyr jumping over to consoles, and the crappy FMV classic Night Trap finds a new lease of life on the Switch.

Here's the bulk of what's out this week:

Shemue 1 & 2 (PC, PS4, XBO)

Flood of Light (Switch)

Shio (Switch)

The Low Road (Switch)

Night Trap (Switch)

Fernz Gate (Switch)

My Farm (PC, Switch)

Guacamelee 2 (PC, PS4)

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Martyr (PS4, XBO)

F1 2018 (PC, PS4, XBO)

Mothergunship (PS4, XBO)

Misfit (PC)

Hypergun (PC)

Brawlout (PS4, XBO)

Slime Rancher (PS4)

City Blocks (PC)

Hacky Zack (Switch)

Quietest week of the month by far. There are a few standouts, of course, like the most colourful and festive platformer, Guacamelee 2:

Those who like action RPGs in the Warhammer universe can give Inquisitor Martyr a shot on consoles this week. Should merge over the improvements made to the PC build since launch.

And you can't go past Shenmue, clearly.

So Shenmue fans, time to shine. For everyone else: see anything that catches your eye?

Unless they’ve performed a miracle with the port (it doesn’t appear they’ve done anything at all), Shenmue has aged terribly and won’t be appreciated by anyone who isn’t playing it purely on sentimental value. Given how many Dreamcasts Sega sold I don’t think that’s a very big audience.

I must have played through the Shenmue 1 several times over on the DC but when I went back to it on a PC emulator six months ago the game felt terrible. People forget that the default setting on the DC had the main character’s movement controlled with the d-pad and the guy can only walk in a straight line.

I also never finished the second one on the OG Xbox back in the day which isn’t a good sign given how much I loved the first.

Triple AAA games nailing the brief. Indie games surprising people out of nowhere, and expansions and patches that completely turn a game around. It's been a good year for games - now it's time for you to vote for your favourite.